MRLC Series of Lectures Phrase III “An Overview of Categorization of Internet Unfair Competition and Study of Forefront Cases” was Held in Law School of RUC

2014.12.17 - 2014.12.17

At 6:00 pm on December 17^th, 2014, MRLC series of lectures phrase III “An Overview of Categorization of Internet Unfair Competition and Study of Forefront Cases” was held in Room 302 of Mingde Law Building of Renmin University. This lecture was hosted by Associate Professor Meng Yanbei of Renmin Law School, and Associate Professor Song Biao was invited to be the commentator. Lawyer Qin Jian, the senior legal counsel of Baidu Company, was the speaker of this lecture. He gave students a thorough explanation of types of Internet unfair competition, and further interpreted forefront cases in detail.

Lawyer Qin Jian’s lecture mainly divides into three parts. First, lawyer Qin Jian briefly introduced the development of China’s Internet market. With the stimulation of global competition and capital market, the competition of Internet market is more intense. As a result, the cases of China’s Internet unfair competition increase sharply. Then lawyer Qin Jian made a detailed analysis of the categorization of Internet unfair competition. He mainly introduced four new types of unfair competition conducts, that is, flow hijack conduct, malicious interference conduct, business plagiarism conduct and Internet free-riding conduct. In the third part, lawyer Qin Jian shared practical issues involved in Internet unfair competition cases, combing with “Baidu v. Qihoo unfair competition” case in which he was personally involved. Lawyer Qin Jian not only made a detailed analysis of malicious interference, flow hijack and Internet free-riding conducts involved in this case, but also shared experience and skills in lawyer affairs with students on this basis. In the trial of first instance, lawyer Qin Jian believed that lawyers should dig the facts from both horizontal and vertical dimensions, and express the facts through visual charts, reaching the goal of an in-depth analysis of the facts as well as an intuitive presentation to the court. In the trial of second instance, lawyers need a more sufficient preparation. Lawyer Qin Jian shared his practical experience in the trial of second instance of the case “Baidu v. Qihoo unfair competition”. During the preparation of the second trial of the case, he focused on the entire Internet industry, had a re-understanding of Internet service and confirmed the service combined with the world's Internet service and the security software market. The establishment of this rule has great significance to delimit the judicial red line of the Internet industry, and promote the healthy development of the Internet industry. Finally, Mr. Qin Jian showed that, with the legislation and the legal system developing more perfect, China’s Internet is closer in line with the world’s Internet, and the golden age of China's Internet industry will come eventually.

Associate Professor Song Biao expressed his recognition with lawyer Qin Jian’s shared knowledge and experience during the process of dealing with the Internet unfair competition from the practical angle. Moreover, he expressed his own views on the relationship between unfair competition law and unfair competition in different industries, construction of new commercial activities and new relationship of Internet under the new economic environment, and how to incorporate the regulation of anti-unfair competition law combined with his own experience.

In the interactive Q&A session, the teachers and students had a fierce discussion with lawyer Qin Jian on the issues of Internet industry recognized business ethics, plagiarism and imitation borders, regulation of judiciary to unfair competition conducts, and application problems of punitive damages. Lawyer Qin Jian responded to these issues one by one.

In the end, Associate Professor Meng Yanbei made a brief summary of this lecture. She said that recognized business ethics of the Internet industry is the key to confirm whether competitive behavior is legitimate or not, and lawyer Qin Jian’s intuitively clear, insightful presentation and case interpretation will also guide everyone have a deeper thinking of Anti-Unfair Competition Law.